The invention relates to the field of data processing and, more particularly, to the field of sensing data from one or more sources of data input.
Generally, it is known to individually monitor selected environmental conditions or parameters such as shock, temperature, and humidity. It is also known to individually monitor various system conditions or parameters such as vibration, strain, and tilt. The monitoring of such parameters is accomplished utilizing dedicated separate autonomous monitoring devices. These individual environmental and system monitors provide an indication of the level of such parameters to which a system is exposed. The use of these dedicated and separate monitoring devices often requires that separate power sources, sensors, data recorders, and data processors be provided for each device. Accordingly, considerable redundancy exists in the hardware required for such monitoring, and these separate monitors require individual installation, maintenance, and reading. The use of these dedicated and separate devices, e.g., including reading and/or tracking of data, can be complex, costly, bulky and space consuming, and time consuming.
It is also known to combine several environmental monitoring functions into a single monitoring system. Examples of such systems can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,302 by Cordier titled xe2x80x9cProcess For Monitoring Equipment And Device For Implementing Said Process,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,749 by Vosburgh titled xe2x80x9cMethod Of Data Compression And Apparatus For Its Use In Monitoring Machinery,xe2x80x9d U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,245 by Moldavsky titled xe2x80x9cMonitored Environment Container,xe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,917 by Higgs et al. titled xe2x80x9cElectronic Warning Apparatus.xe2x80x9d These combination monitoring systems, however, fail to provide an accurate, cost-effective, compact, and flexible system for remotely monitoring a plurality of sensors simultaneously and with a low power consumption.
For example, due to the prohibitive costs of conventional data collection methods, highway structures are monitored at intervals measured in years. In other words, the failure to provide an accurate, cost-effective, and flexible system for monitoring a highway structure makes data related to the structure or device difficult and/or cost prohibitive to obtain. Such information or data, however, can be quite valuable to evaluation and monitoring of the structure.
In view of the foregoing background, the present invention advantageously provides a method and apparatus for accurately, compactly, and flexibly remotely monitoring a device by the use of a plurality of sensors such as shock, vibration, and at least one other such as temperature, tilt, strain, or humidity simultaneously and with a low power consumption. The present invention also provides a method and apparatus for reducing inspection costs and also creates new monitoring capabilities not possible or not available for various types of systems. The present invention additionally advantageously provides a method and apparatus for making rapid, reliable, and timely readiness measurements of abroad range of systems desired to be monitored such as missiles, missile launchers, missile support systems, highway bridges, operating machinery, transportation, or telemetry systems. The present invention further advantageously increases reliability, readiness, flexibility, and safety and greatly reduces maintenance time, labor, and cost for monitoring various types of systems. For example, the apparatus advantageously can readily be expanded for additional types of sensors which may be desired on various selected applications.
More particularly, the present invention provides a method of monitoring a device comprising the steps of collecting a plurality of sensor signals representative of sensed data from a plurality of micro-electrical mechanical sensors (xe2x80x9cMEMSxe2x80x9d). The plurality of micro-electrical mechanical sensors generate sensed data representative of at least shock, vibration, and at least one other parameter. The method also includes converting the plurality of sensor signals into digital data, processing the digital data, and simultaneously and remotely detecting the processed data to determined the occurrence of at least one predetermined condition. The method can also include sensing an initial wake-up condition prior to the step of collecting the plurality of sensor signals.
The present invention also includes an apparatus for monitoring a device. The apparatus preferably includes a plurality of micro-electrical mechanical sensors positioned to sense a plurality of parameters including at least shock, vibration, and at least one other parameter and to provide a corresponding plurality of sensor data signals representative of the plurality of monitored parameters. The apparatus additionally preferably includes a low-power, data acquisition processing circuit responsive to the plurality of sensor signals for acquiring and processing the sensed data. The low-power, data acquisition processing circuit includes a plurality of data inputs, an analog-to-digital converter responsive to the plurality of data inputs for converting each of the plurality of sensor signals from an analog format to a digital format, a digital signal processor responsive to the analog-to-digital converter for processing the digitally formatted data, a data communications processor responsive to the digital signal processor for generating and processing data communications, a battery for providing portable power to the data acquisition processing circuit, and power management controlling means at least connected to the battery, the digital signal processor, and the data communications processor for controlling power management of the data acquisition processing circuit. The apparatus advantageously further includes a remote detector responsive to the data acquisition processing circuit for remotely detecting the processed digital data. The apparatus also can advantageously include at least one wake-up sensor circuit connected to the low-power, data acquisition processing circuit for sensing an initial wake-up condition to thereby wake-up the low-power, data acquisition processing circuit from a sleep-type low power condition.
The present invention further provides an apparatus for low-power, data acquisition processing responsive to a plurality of micro-electrical mechanical sensors. The apparatus preferably includes a plurality of data inputs, an analog-to-digital converter responsive to the plurality of data inputs for converting each of the plurality of sensor signals from an analog format to a digital format, a digital signal processor responsive to the analog-to-digital converter for processing the digitally formatted data, a data communications processor responsive to the digital signal processor for generating and processing data communications, a battery for providing portable power to the data acquisition processing circuit, and power management controlling means at least connected to the battery, the digital signal processor, and the data communications processor for controlling power management of the data acquisition processing circuit.
Therefore, the method and apparatus advantageously provide a smart monitor which can form a node for accessing data from a device such as a structure, system, or area from which data is desired. A plurality of these smart monitors can each form a node in a data communications network capable of multi-sensor data acquisition, analysis, and assessment which perform by acquiring, storing, processing, displaying and screening field collected data from a plurality of MEMS. The apparatus preferably forms a wireless node which communicates data, e.g., both raw or unprocessed and processed data, so that the data can advantageously be used in a user friendly format such as windows-based programs of a laptop or palmtop computer.